Malariotherapy, also called malaria therapy or malaria inoculation, is an archaic medical procedure that treated disease by artificially injecting a patient with malaria parasites. It is a type of pyrotherapy, inducing a high fever to relieve or eliminate the symptoms of another condition; after the primary disease was treated, the induced malaria was then cured with antimalarial drugs, historically quinine. Austrian physician Julius Wagner-Jauregg developed the method in 1917 to treat neurosyphilis, receiving the 1927 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the technique.
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StatusDiscontinued or Obsolete 1 Origin YearSourced to the subject's own account Malariotherapy
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FAQs
Why would a doctor infect a patient with malaria to treat paralysis?
Because fever had long been observed to ease mental illness and Wagner-Jauregg found in 1917 that malaria fever could cure or alleviate general paralysis from syphilis.
The Nobel Prize site explains that general paralysis is a stage of syphilis in which the brain and psyche are attacked and the patient can end in a lethargic and paralytic state that can lead to death. People had noted since antiquity that mental illnesses could be ameliorated by fevers. In 1917 Julius Wagner-Jauregg exposed patients to malaria-infected blood and could in this way cure or alleviate general paralysis. The Nobel Prize of 1927 was given for the therapeutic value of malaria inoculation in the treatment of dementia paralytica. This page records what was held at the time and is not medical advice.
Connections
Sources
1. Wikipedia
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia Foundation
2. Malaria Therapy (Wikipedia)
WikipediaLead paragraph, Wagner-Jauregg sentence
The method was developed by Austrian physician Julius Wagner-Jauregg in 1917 for the treatment of neurosyphilis for which he received the 1927 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaria_therapy, lead section
The malaria therapy (or malaria inoculation, and sometimes malariotherapy) is an archaic medical procedure of treating diseases using artificial injection of malaria parasites. It is a type of pyrotherapy (or pyretotherapy) by which high fever is induced to stop or eliminate symptoms of certain diseases.
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